If anyone is interested to see how the finish might look, banggood is currently selling a clear version of the BLF A6.
And the finish on the FW3A will go in the same direction, just the machining of the threads will hopefully be better

If anyone is interested to see how the finish might look, banggood is currently selling a clear version of the BLF A6.
And the finish on the FW3A will go in the same direction, just the machining of the threads will hopefully be better

So your bringing attention to the bare A6 made me pull my down from the shelf and give it a look. And odd as it is, the Efest 35A cell inside is deader’n a doornail! No charger I have will recognize it at all. How does that happen? There’s no parasitic drain on this tail clicky light, so why did the cell die?

So your bringing attention to the bare A6 made me pull my down from the shelf and give it a look. And odd as it is, the Efest 35A cell inside is deader’n a doornail! No charger I have will recognize it at all. How does that happen? There’s no parasitic drain on this tail clicky light, so why did the cell die?

Left it on moonlight or one of the hidden modes by mistake? I’ve done that

My clear A6 has a de-domed XP-G2, the moon mode is low but not ultra low, difficult to not see that it’s making light while setting it down especially as it resides on a top shelf above my head… it would have been shining virtually in my face as I set it on the shelf. A6 firmware, so there’s not really a hidden mode that would not have been noticed.

And, this is the third Efest cell lately that is totally dead on me. (worthy to note that this one IS 3 years old…)

High internal resistance is my first guess. If the cell was abused like I am sure it was, this is not far fetched. Possibly a short in the tail switch allowing a small amount of power to flow but then the LED should light up I figure.

Yes, bare aluminum is pretty soft / scratchable. However, it’s not usually very noticeable… and it’s not difficult to polish if desired.

Clear anodizing would make it much harder to scratch, and would still not look bad after scratches form since it’s at least the same color. However, it wouldn’t be polish-able, and clear ano is difficult to get right since it’s so thin.

Um, sorry TK, but clear anodization is merely regular anodization without dye added before the sealing process. Not thin, not any more so than any black anodized light. Take the ZebraLight or DQG Tiny III 7xXP-G2 for example, they are anodized without dye but hold up very well.

In the case of the DQG, it’s also a direct from machining ano process, showing the lines from the tooling. And by the way, these lines are really not necessary, a final pass can be made at slower feed rates for a near polished look straight off the lathe.

Um, sorry TK, but clear anodization is merely regular anodization without dye added before the sealing process. Not thin, not any more so than any black anodized light. Take the ZebraLight or DQG Tiny III 7xXP-G2 for example, they are anodized without dye but hold up very well.

I don’t mind natural / no-dye anodizing, like what Zebralight and DQG do. It’s strong and it gives the light sort of a darkened grey or brown color depending on how thick the anodizing is.

Clear / silver anodizing like the Convoy lights is pretty thin though, enough that some areas can conduct electricity on some units, because thicker coatings darken the surface. From what I hear, Simon had some trouble getting the right balance on those because a little too far one way makes it too dark and a little too far the other way makes it too thin.

Originally I thought it was anodized to a normal thickness with silver dye, but apparently that’s not how he did it. It’s just thin enough that it doesn’t change the color.

I wouldn’t complain if the FW3A used natural type-III anodizing, even if that makes the surface a darker color. But I also wouldn’t complain about a thinner “clear” anodizing or even none at all. I like all of them. Bonus points for purple though, or rainbow, or candy colors. Would be pretty awesome to get candy-grape purple (chromed with translucent purple over it).